Professions
Professions define every survivor (Character) - what they can do, which training they received before the outbreak and their abilities and skills, which help make their survival (i.e. your survival) a little easier. However, professions are not very limiting. Everyone can train any proficiency, raise any stat, and use any weapon they want. However, only chefs, doctors, engineers, farmers and scientists can use their respective "class skills". There are currently 20 different professions available to choose from to join the game, including 3 Service Professions, 2 Production Professions, 5 Stat-Boost Professions, and 9 Role-Playing Professions. All of the classes start with a pen knife along with a Beta Tomcat and 150 rounds of .32 caliber ammo. Brief Analysis Production Professions are able to create specific goods as long as the player has logged in at some point during the day. The number of items created is random while the quality of them is determined by what level your character is at. Needless to say, a higher level character means higher quality goods, although starving or heavily wounded survivors are unable to produce anything. The only disadvantage of these classes is that they have no real bonuses when it comes to survival during battles. Service Professions provide the benefit of extra income irrespective of whether you are online and playing. As they gain levels, the value of their service increases. The downside is they gain an average amount of experience for killing zeds. Assuming they start the day fully nourished, a chef or doctor can perform 10 services per day before becoming too hungry and an engineer can perform 8 repairs per day. Service classes cannot use their services on themselves while in the Inner City, unless in a Player-Owned Outpost. However, they are still up for sale, and can still be hired by players nearby. Like the production professions characters, they do not have bonus stats either. Stat-Boost Professions provide extra stats at level 0. The Soldier, however, has a disadvantage with a -20% EXP gain, but the general feeling is that the Soldier class is the best class in the game. Soldiers start out with +35 stats and +10 proficiency. Role-Playing Professions get 30% more experience for killing zeds. This sounds great, but they will always be behind stat-boost classes, because a role-playing class needs to be level 85 to have the same amount of stats that a level 50 Soldier has or a level 60 Athlete. This is because after level 50, you only get 1 stat point per level and 2 proficiency points. However, if you do plan on rising to the level 200 cap (a feat achieved only by a few) this might be the class for you! Production Professions They have the ability to spontaneously generate items in their inventory once a day, provided they log in that day. This is a useful skill despite being a passive one because the produced items can be either kept for personal use, or sold for a profit. Service Professions Only few of the skills taught at the past everyday life professions are still useful for everyday survival in our zombified world, but these few special skills are highely valued nowadays. Survivors with professions such as Doctors, Chefs and Engineers are required to support life within the outposts, even though everything comes at a fee of course. Professions which learned such special skills can get hired to provide their services to anyone who has a well filled wallet. However, there is a good reason for these prices, after all these services include quite a bit of work and tire the service provider much faster than usual, which decreases their nourishment with every customer. Stat-Boost Classes They have an edge over other classes in terms of combat. These characters are in some way more fit (usually due to some kind of body training) for fighting than the average person, and they start the game with a bonus to their starting stats. A Stat-Boost class has more overall power than a character in another category of the same level. Role-Playing Classes They usually have no special bonuses at all. Rather than special skills or increased stats, Role-playing Classes level up faster. A Role-playing Class starts the game with no benefits at all, except maybe any extra cash they had on them, but in the hands of a skilled player they can quickly flourish. Unfortunately, a Role-playing Class will always be found lacking compared to another class of the same level. Perhaps the biggest benefit of a Role-playing Class is that you have a fine degree of control over your character development, instead of starting with certain stat increases. Role-playing Classes include people who had a quite boring, uneventful life before the outbreak. But now, after the crisis, these survivors can finally flourish and show their real potential, now that they are free of social and moral bonds. Cyborg Santa Class Renames & Class Changes Previously, members of DF could pay 5,000 credits to rename their class to something of their choice but still keep the bonuses and abilities of their original class. Examples included Major Anderson's "Special Forces" (actually he is a soldier) and Xaelath's "Admin" class. At the end of 2008, Neil Yates (AdminPwn), renamed his special class of "Cyborg" to "Father" to commemorate the birth of his son, Matthew. Congratulations! Unfortunately, people can no longer get class renames as "...it can cause a lot of problems with the account.", as quoted from a PM from Xaelath. People can, however, pay 1,000 credits to get their class changed to something more desirable. So, if you feel you've made a mistake choosing a certain class, and you've got 1,000 credits, a Profession change can be bought in the Credit Shop under the Miscellaneous section. This is more for the higher level players who wouldn't want to reset their character. For lower levels, it would be cheaper to reset or create a new character. Category:Character Details